Saturday, March 20, 1999 9:12:51 PM Ultimate beginners guide to phreaking [Version 1.05.13a (Browser - simple text editor compatible)] ________________________________ | | |The Ultimate Beginners Guide**| | | | To Phreaking | | | | 1999 Edition | | | | By Squiler (SQR) | | | | http://blacksun.box.sk | | | |______________________________| "No AT&T, thank YOU!" -Phone Losers Of America "What the hell is caller id?" -Blink 182 "Laughter is free, anytime, just call me, 439-0116" -Sublime "I got the hook up" -Master P "By the way! its not a game! its a way of life!!!!!" -(¯-_-¯13¯-_-¯) PLA QuÉbec "Alexanger Graham Bell must be turning over in his grave" -Squiler **On the Lighter Side: I was originally going to call this "SQR's Phreaking Tutorial". However this was changed after I felt that I sounded to much like a foul-mouthed hick. I have seen many phreaking tutorials in the past. Each of them had one or more things wrong with them. Either they were too old, too long, too short, or too advanced. That is why I set out to create an up to date phreaking tutorial short enough too be read, easy enough to understand, and covered more areas of phreaking rather than box plans. ************************************************************************ Preface What is a phreaker? Literally, a phreaker is a "phone hacker". However a phreaker can be anyone who messes around with phones or phone lines. The same way a hacker is not necessarily someone who cracks government files, but someone that messes around with computers. Why become a phreaker? Only become a phreaker if you are committed to it, interested in it, and in need of a hobby. Do not, and I stress do not become a phreaker to impress your friends. If you want to impress your friends become a hacker. Disclaimer Much of the information here contains illegal activities. This document is for informational purposes only. Do not attempt anything stated in this document. If you do attempt anything here, you are solely responsible for what you do. If you get caught and get in any kind of trouble, it is your own fault. If you do not agree to this, do not read any further. ************************************************************************ Part 1: Prank Calling You may have heard the term "boxing" (boxing refers to the building of various phone add-ons) associated with phreaking before. However boxing is in no way all that phreaking has to offer. Boxing is phreaking, but phreaking is not boxing. Got it? Now I'm going to begin with one of the easiest and most phun areas of phreaking--prank calling! Before we get into prank calling, let me tell you a few things that prank calling is not. -dialing a random number, screaming FUCK YOU!!!, and hanging up (although occasionally I get a kick out of that). -repeatedly dialing the same number over and over again, and every time someone picks up, you hang up. This drives the person insane, but it is still not a phreak. Ok...So what is a prank call you ask? Well A prank call is when you call someone up, lead them on for as long as you can (the key to success in prank calling is the longer you stay on, the better), and hang up with them still thinking that was a real call. The call can be funny or serious. An example of a serious call would be calling someone up, and getting important information on them (i.e. credit card number, be creative). A funny call is one where you make the person think that you are messed up. An example is a great one from Crankings (a prank calling group) where a guy calls up a Mobile gas station claiming his son used their oil as a sexual lubricant. He then asked the gas station attendant if his son's dick would fall off. I was cracking up. That was an example of a real prank call. The key to a funny call is that it can be funny to you without pissing them off. In the previous call, the callers, and anybody who heard the call was cracking up, but the gas station attendant was not angry. He just thought he was talking to some really screwed up people. One mistake I made was that I used to think you had to piss the other person off to make it funny for you. But I was wrong. Once I called up a woman and asked her if she was satisfied with her sex life. I went into all these other things and kept her on the phone for a few minutes. A little later her husband or boyfriend or whatever called back. He recited my address then added, "That's where you live punk?" Which brings me to the next part--don't get caught!! Well first of all if you are calling from home, you better use *67 or whatever. However the best thing to use is a caller-id blocker box. It makes it so your name will not show up on a caller id, while *67 only stops your number from *69. Well now you ask, where do I obtain a caller-id blocker box? Well, there are 2 ways. The first is to get one from one of those "things you never knew existed catalog", the drawback is the price sometimes (remember shipping and handling) and the fact that it will take a few days to get to you, plus it is non-returnable and non-refundable. The next way is to pick one up from Radio Shack. The drawback to this is that not all Radio Shack stores carry them, and it may be hard to obtain. However this is probably your best bet. One last note on prank calling- Practice, practice, practice. If you feel the need to laugh, press mute, or hang-up. Try not to piss people off. And oh yeah, I have discovered one of the most fun prank calls. You call someone up, and say, "mom, can you pick me up now?", or something of the sort, then lead them on to other stuff, be creative. From my experience, this works at least 40% of the time. Another form of this is to call someone up, and ask for a common name, (like Josh or David or something) then claim to be their friend. If they ask who you are, use another common name like Michael or something. Then say, you want them to come over to your house, or to meet them somewhere. This call works less of the time, but when it does, it's great...So don't screw it up! [END OF PART 1] ************************************************************************ Part 2: Boxing Let me begin by saying that this document is for informational purposes only. Do not attempt anything written here. You are responsible for your own actions. Oh, and one more thing- along with phreaking comes a code of ethics. I can't tell what that is, you'll have to find out yourself. But the one thing I will tell you is that you should never fuck with people who don't deserve it. If you want to screw people up, make sure they are assholes who deserve it. To begin, what exactly is boxing? As I said before, boxing refers to the building of various phone add-ons. These add-ons can do anything from adding music to your line to making free phone calls. There are over 40 boxes in all. Box names are usually named after colors, such as the red box, or the yellow box. However some are named for other things such as the cheese box and the tron box. Boxes are used by phreakers everywhere. The most popular boxes are the red box and beige box. FYI (for your information): You might think that boxes were invented and are only used by teenage phreakers, but that is not true. One of the most famous phreakers is Cap'n Crunch, who is long past his teenage years. As a matter of fact, the first box ever made was the blue box (free long distance calls). It was made in the 70's by Steve Jobs, who later founded Apple Computer. On The Lighter Side: With his blue box, Steve Jobs made one of the most famous prank calls in history. He called up Vatican city, and pranked the pope. So far, you have made prank calls, which makes you a phreaker. However your adventures are still related to hacking. Boxes are the clincher, the line that truly separates phreaking from hacking. This is because boxing is a form of phreaking called "field phreaking". As a hacker, you sit at your computer all day. When you make prank calls, you still just sit at home. But as a field phreaker, you go out an do things. Now we come to the next section-your first box. But before we get into your first box, here's a list of tools to keep handy when you're out field phreaking: -Backpack for holding these tools: -wrench -wire strippers-a MUST have -7/16 hex driver -Philips head screw driver (large) -Philips head screw driver (small) -flathead screw driver (large) -flathead screw driver (small) -alligator clips -2 feet of extra telephone wire -good, sharp scissors -gloves -Swiss army knife (optional, but very useful) with: -Philips head screw driver -flat head screw driver -long knife -short knife -A Partner (once again optional but useful. You should always have a partner for field phreaking "missions", but generally, you should have about 2-3 other "phreaking buddies".) FYI: Yet another reason that separates phreaking from hacking. A partner will always help in field phreaking "missions". Sometimes you will see that having a partner will make the "mission" a more fun experience, plus they can help you out of sticky situations. This is also true in prank calling, because why would you prank call if you have no one to laugh about it with? Got everything? Good. Now we can finally get to making your first box. First of all, the box you will be making is called the beige box. It is very easy to make and has many purposes. Anytime you see the words "lineman's headset" or "test phone", they are referring to the beige box. What is it? Did a phone guy ever come to your house to repair or install something? Or have you seen the phone working up top the phone pole? Look at his tool belt. There is a bright orange phone, you can't miss it. This phone is called a lineman's headset. Usually, after the phone guy repairs a line, or installs a new one, he uses the lineman's headset to test and see if the line is working. This is what we'll be making, but we have other purposes for it. Basically, the beige box enables a phone to be hooked directly to the line. Usually, you hook the phone up to a jack, which is hooked up to the line, however the beige box eliminates the need for a jack. Can you think of any uses for this? Yup, that's right, with the beige box, you can use someone's phone line without having to go inside their house and hook up to the jack. Don't get so excited just yet, we haven't built it yet. Parts you will need for this: -a phone -phone wire with modular jacks at both ends. (one goes into the phone, the other goes into the jack) -alligator clips Tools you will need for this: -wire stripper -scissors, or knife -7/16 hex driver (for later) that's all? Yup! With such few things needed to make this, it can't be hard, and it's not. Directions: Step 1: If one end of the phone wire is not already connected to the phone line, do so now. Step 2: Cut off the modular jack at the other end. Strip about 6 inches of the outside wire. This is not easy, because the wire is very thick. You may want to take the scissors and make a small cut in the wire (not too deep or you will cut the inside wires) and put it off. Step 3: There should be four wires inside. Yellow, green, red and black. Discard the black and yellow wires, you don't need them. Concentrate on the red and green wires. Step 4: Strip the green wire. Now strip the red wire. Step 5: Connect one alligator clip to the red wire, then connect one to the green wire. CONGRATULATIONS, you have a beige box. Were those directions too hard to follow? Here's a step by step schematic: Step 1: __________________________ | | | Phone | |_________________________| Modular Jack-> ||| Phone wire----->|----------------- Step 2: Strip Wire Around Here ____ __________________________________________________| | Phone wire->--------------------------------------------------|___| Cut here--------^ ^ Modular Jack---------^ Step 3: it [the wire] should look (somewhat) like this: ___________________________________ |_ - ^------|Wires to concentrate on _ <----| - __________________________________| All in all, it should look like this: _________________ | | | Phone | |_______________| ||| |______________________|---|<> <- |---|<> | Alligator clips---^--| Now that you've built your beige box, let's see what you can use it for. You have just built the most basic beige box, which means it has no security options. When using this box, it is very easy to get caught. That is why you will only be using this beige box on your own phone line. Later in this tutorial I will show how to build the Beige Box Advanced System (BBAS), my own advanced version of the beige box. You can use the BBAS on other people's phone lines. But first, let's see how we attach the beige box to your phone line. You will need the 7/16 hex driver for this. First thing is to locate the phone box outside your house. It is usually on the side of your house, or in the backyard. Most of the time it is near your heating shit. It is usually gray or beige, and has a bell logo on it. To open the box put your hand on the bottom, push up and open it. If that fails pop it open with the hex driver. All you have to do now is connect the alligator clip on the red wire to the wire in the box, do the same with the green wire. This is hard to explain so I've drawn a schematic: (schematic on next page) It should look (somewhat) like this: _____________________________________ | | | | <----Phone Box | ** <-----Screws--> **>=<| | | Alligator clip^ | | | | | | Red Wire (sometimes green-->| | | | | | | | | |____|______________ | Screws--> ** | ^ | | |Modular Jack cut from here------^ | | | | | | | | | | | Green Wire (sometimes red)-->| | | | | | | | | | |<--Phone Wire | ** <----Screws--> **>=<| | | | ^ | | | Alligator Clip^ | | | | | ------------------------------------- | | | _____________________________________ | | | | | | | | Phone |______________| | | | | ^Phone Wire ------------------------------------- This may be hard to follow, but try, reading schematics is something you'll have to do if you want to build boxes in the future. Now pick up the phone. If you hear a dial tone, you are now officially a field phreaker. If not retrace your steps. ************************************************************************ [RED BOXING] Ok, you've built your beige box. You can't quite use it yet because it has no safety precautions. Don't worry, I'll get to the BBAS later. But for now, I'm going to teach you one of the most talked about techniques in all of phreaking--(drum roll please) Red Boxing. Well I'm assuming that if you went around to enough phreaking sites to find this tutorial, then you must have heard the term red boxing before. But for those of you who didn't... What exactly is red boxing? Red boxing is a way of getting free calls off of pay phones. The way this is works is because when you insert a quarter into a pay phone, it makes a tone which signals the phone that you can make a call. How does red boxing work? What the red box does is generate the tones that the phone makes when you put in a quarter, Thus giving you a free call. What is the difference between the red box, and red boxing? One thing you must remember is that a red box does not give you free calls from a payphone. All the red box does is generate tones, which can be used for free calls. Are you getting an idea? What if I could alternatively obtain the tones? Then I could make free pay phone calls without the trouble of building a red box! Well there are a few ways to do this. First, you could go to HTTP://SQUILER.HOME.DHS.ORG and pick up the tones from there, but hey, you're a phreaker, and you like to do things yourself. Well, the first thought that probably comes to mind when you here this is to put a tape recorder to a phone, put in a quarter, and record the tone it makes. That way you get unlimited payphone calls for a quarter. However it is not that easy, in fact there are two things wrong with this method. The first thing wrong is the tape recorder. You see, the tones generated by the phone are digital. Your tape recorder on the other hand is analog. When you record digital tones on to an analog tape recorder (although you can't hear it) they become to distorted for the phone to recognize. Your best bet is to get one of those personal hand recorders. You know, the ones you always see in ads? Those are digital because they use a chip to record the sounds, not a tape. Even if you a digital recorder to the phone, there is still a problem--background noise. This also distorts the tones, making them unusable. However there is a way around this using your answering machine. First off, you'll need a digital answering machine. If you've bought an answering machine in the past year and a half or so, it's digital. Mine is the AT&T 1720 Digital Answering Machine. Now here's what you have to do. When no one is home, go to a payphone and call your house. Since no one is home, the answering machine will pick up. When you hear the tone, put a quarter or two into the phone. When you get home, record the tones from your answering machine to your digital recorder. Now that you are all set go to a payphone. Pick up the phone and play the tones. There you go. Usually this works perfect on long distance calls. But for local calls, you might have to speak to an operator. But before you do, you better get some practice because speaking to an operator is the number one way that phreakers get caught. Overwhelmed? Don't be. You know more than you think. You must be tired now, so we're going to take a little break. Maybe now you should eat, go to the bathroom, call a friend (if you still have any) get out of your house, go somewhere, maybe make a few prank calls. Just don't get caught. But for now you should sit back and read some good phreaking literature. You can start with this adventure story. ************************************************************************ Bad as Shit Recently, a telephone fanatic in the northwest made an interesting discovery. He was exploring the 804 area code (Virginia) and found out that the 840 exchange did something strange. In the vast majority of cases, in fact in all of the cases except one, he would get a recording as if the exchange didn't exist. However, if he dialed 804-840 and four rather predictable numbers, he got a ring! After one or two rings, somebody picked up. Being experienced at this kind of thing, he could tell that the call didn't "supe", that is, no charges were being incurred for calling this number. (Calls that get you to an error message, or a special operator, generally don't supervise.) A female voice, with a hint of a Southern accent said, "Operator, can I help you?" "Yes," he said, "What number have I reached?" "What number did you dial, sir?" He made up a number that was similar. "I'm sorry that is not the number you reached." Click. He was fascinated. What in the world was this? He knew he was going to call back, but before he did, he tried some more experiments. He tried the 840 exchange in several other area codes. In some, it came up as a valid exchange. In others, exactly the same thing happened -- the same last four digits, the same Southern belle. Oddly enough, he later noticed, the areas worked in seemed to travel in a beeline from Washington DC to Pittsburgh, PA. He called back from a payphone. "Operator, can I help you?" "Yes, this is the phone company. I'm testing this line and we don't seem to have an identification on your circuit. What office is this, please?" "What number are you trying to reach?" "I'm not trying to reach any number. I'm trying to identify this circuit." "I'm sorry, I can't help you." "Ma'am, if I don't get an ID on this line, I'll have to disconnect it. We show no record of it here." "Hold on a moment, sir." After about a minute, she came back. "Sir, I can have someone speak to you. Would you give me your number, please?" He had anticipated this and he had the payphone number ready. After he gave it, she said, "Mr. XXX will get right back to you." "Thanks." He hung up the phone. It rang. INSTANTLY! "Oh my God," he thought, "They weren't asking for my number -- they were confirming it!" "Hello," he said, trying to sound authoritative. "This is Mr. XXX. Did you just make an inquiry to my office concerning a phone number?" "Yes. I need an identi--" "What you need is advice. Don't ever call that number again. Forget you ever knew it." At this point our friend got so nervous he just hung up. He expected to hear the phone ring again but it didn't. Over the next few days he racked his brains trying to figure out what the number was. He knew it was something big -- that was pretty certain at this point. It was so big that the number was programmed into every central office in the country. He knew this because if he tried to dial any other number in that exchange, he'd get a local error message from his CO, as if the exchange didn't exist. It finally came to him. He had an uncle who worked in a federal agency. He had a feeling that this was government related and if it was, his uncle could probably find out what it was. He asked the next day and his uncle promised to look into the matter. The next time he saw his uncle, he noticed a big change in his manner. He was trembling. "Where did you get that number?!" he shouted. "Do you know I almost got fired for asking about it?!? They kept wanting to know where I got it." Our friend couldn't contain his excitement. "What is it?" he pleaded. "What's the number?!" "IT'S THE PRESIDENT'S BOMB SHELTER!" He never called the number after that. He knew that he could probably cause quite a bit of excitement by calling the number and saying something like, "The weather's not good in Washington. We're coming over for a visit." But our friend was smart. he knew that there were some things that were better off unsaid and undone. <> From @UICVM.uic.edu:TK0JUT2@NIU Tue Jun 12 06:40:26 1990 Taken from "The Official Phreaker's Manual". ************************************************************************ [BBAS] Well I've putting it off long enough, and if you've accomplished everything, you are ready to build the BBAS. Let me take back something I just said. You see, sometimes us phreakers are pressed for time. We can't just build things from scratch. So now instead of building the BBAS from nothing, we're going to modify the beige box we already have. Although we're only going to make some small changes, these are very important changes. The main improvement on the BBAS is that is has features to prevent you from getting discovered and caught. And if I must, once again-- there is no sure way to prevent getting caught. But don't get discovered, and don't do anything that's bad. Well since we're only going to be modifying the beige box, we won't need many parts. Here is a list of things you'll need for the BBAS: -your beige box -a phone with an "in-use" light -batteries -clip, to hold down mute. (This is hard to find and use, but very useful) -Scissors -Wire Strippers -A simple switch (can be bought for under $2USD at any hardware store Ok, here's what to do: STEP 1: Switch the phone you have already with the phone that has the "in-use" light. STEP 2: Cut the phone wire in half around the middle of it. STEP 3: Strip some wire off both of the new ends of the wire. The switch should have 2 screws on it. STEP 4: Wrap one of the new ends of the wire (both wires, red and green) around one screw, and the other new end around the other screw. It should look (somewhat) like this: ________________ | | | Phone |------====*|||||*===--------===== |_______________| ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Wire stripped here--^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Red and green wires----^ ^ ^ ^ ^_____ | Screws--^ ^--Switch ^ | |________^ ^ |________________________________^ Now lets how to explain how to use it. Put the clip (if you have one) on the mute button of the phone. This is for the occasion that you plug into someone's line while they're on the phone, and you don't want them hearing any noises. Put the batteries in the phone. For the light, will be in the phone manual. The switch is a "panic" switch. It is used to immediately disconnect your call if you're on someone's phone and then they pick up. Now the first rule of phreaking I always say, is knowing where you are, and this is very important because one of the most frustrating things that happens when field phreaking is not knowing what number you are beige boxing from. Lucky for us phreakers there are things called Automated Number Identification Numbers (ANI or ANAC). When you dial the ANAC number for your area code, a recording will come on and name your phone number. So naturally, this is perfect for beige boxing. The only catch is that there is a different ANAC for each area code. Here is the complete list of ANAC numbers for each area code: Area Code: ANAC Number: 201 958 202 811 203 970 205 300-222-2222 205 300-555-5555 205 300-648-1111 205 300-765-4321 205 300-798-1111 205 300-833-3333 205 557-2311 205 811 205 841-1111 205 908-222-2222 206 411 207 958 209 830-2121 209 211-9779 210 830 212 958 213 114 213 1223 213 211-2345 213 211-2346 213 760-2??? 213 61056 214 570 214 790 214 970-222-2222 214 970-611-1111 215 410-???? 215 511 215 958 216 200-???? 216 331 216 959-9968 217 200-???-???? 219 550 219 559 301 958-9968 310 114 310 1223 310 211-2345 310 211-2346 312 200 312 290 312 1-200-8825 312 1-200-555-1212 313 200-200-2002 313 200-222-2222 313 200-???-???? 313 200200200200200 314 410-???? 315 953 315 958 315 998 317 310-222-2222 317 559-222-2222 317 743-1218 334 5572411 334 5572311 401 200-200-4444 401 222-2222 402 311 404 311 404 940-???-???? 404 940 405 890-7777777 405 897 407 200-222-2222 408 300-???-???? 408 760 408 940 409 951 409 970-???? 410 200-6969 410 200-555-1212 410 811 412 711-6633 412 711-4411 412 999-???? 413 958 413 200-555-5555 414 330-2234 415 200-555-1212 415 211-2111 415 2222 415 640 415 760-2878 415 7600-2222 419 311 502 200-2222222 502 997-555-1212 503 611 503 999 504 99882233 504 201-269-1111 504 998 504 99851-0000000000 508 958 508 200-222-1234 508 200-222-2222 508 26011 509 560 510 760-1111 512 830 512 970-???? 515 5463 515 811 516 958 516 968 517 200-222-2222 517 200200200200200 518 511 518 997 518 998 603 200-222-2222 606 997-555-1212 606 711 607 993 609 958 610 958 610 958-4100 612 511 614 200 614 517 615 200200200200200 615 2002222222 615 830 616 200-222-2222 617 200-222-1234 617 200-222-2222 617 200-444-4444 617 220-2622 617 958 618 200-???-???? 618 930 619 211-2001 619 211-2121 703 811 704 311 707 211-2222 708 1-200-555-1212 708 1-200-8825 708 200-6153 708 724-9951 708 356-9646 713 380 713 970-???? 713 811 714 114 714 211-2121 714 211-2222 716 511 716 990 717 958 718 958 802 2-222-222-2222 802 200-222-2222 802 1-700-222-2222 802 111-2222 805 114 805 211-2345 805 211-2346 805 830 806 970-???? 810 200200200200200 812 410-555-1212 813 311 815 200-???-???? 817 290 817 211 818 970-611-1111 818 1223 818 211-2345 903 211-2346 904 970-611-1111 906 200-222-222 907 1-200-222-2222 907 811 908 958 910 200 910 311 910 988 914 990-1111 915 970-???? 916 211-2222 916 461 919 200 919 711 Now the second rule is never to get caught. If you call someone from someone else's line, tell that person that you might get disconnected suddenly. If you hear someone pick up the phone, while you are on it, use the switch to disconnect your call. Unhook your BBAS, and run like hell. Also, you should be very cautious. Before you go phreaking, think of an alibi of why you were snooping around in someone's yard. NEVER, and I stress NEVER, use the BBAS on someone's house more than twice. You WILL get caught. Also I said before that if you hear someone on the line when you hook up the BBAS that you should immediately hang up, if you want to make a call. This is not entirely true. What if you didn't want to make a call. Got my drift? If you didn't, I'm talking about eavesdropping! That's what the clip on the mute button is for. Although it might not seem like it, eavesdropping is probably the most serious part of beige boxing. You might get lucky and listen in on a really good call, well use your imagination. Anyway, they key to beige boxing-- the one thing you must always remember is-- Nothing will end up on your phone bill! (hehehe.....) Be creative. ************************************************************************* So far, you have made some killer prank calls, made a machine to use anyone's phone for free, and gotten free payphone calls. This document is for begginers only, and you are way past that. If you didn't understand something, read it over. But whatever you do, like I said before-- don't get caught!! ************************************************************************* Coming soon: Intermediate guide to phreaking Tuesday, May 04, 1999 5:29:06 PM